


Wait a Second

by Aleubert



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Ambiguous Relationships, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Internal Conflict, M/M, Making Out, Slow Burn, everyone is confused
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-14 23:37:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18062387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aleubert/pseuds/Aleubert
Summary: Third-year in high school sucks. Moreover, crushing on someone when you are entrapped by exams sucks. More-moreover, having to hide all that shit from your friends sucks. Chan can relate.





	Wait a Second

Chan has a little secret going on.

The thing is, he came from overseas bearing expectations to do well at his grades. When the school bell rings he doesn’t go home just yet, steering his feet to the cram school. He only goes home when the sky is darker than ever, dragging tired steps into tiptoes, sneaking around not wanting to wake Felix—his roommate—up from his sleep.

One boy who attends the same high school as him is called Woojin. They frequently sit together in cram school. It all started with low-voiced jokes and laughter that invited glares from their teachers. They clicked better than they thought to be. And when Woojin smiles as he asked whether Chan minds walking home together after cram, the latter just can’t refuse.

Some of these days, they ended up in some ambiguous corner of Chan’s dorm building, hands and lips busy. Chan would be wondering, but Woojin quickly shut his mind off by the soft nip at his lips. The hallway is dark and cold, but neither seems to mind. Chan’s breath hitches when Woojin’s hand sneaks his way in underneath the fabric of his uniform, resting smugly in the dips of his hip.

Woojin notices that and smiles proudly. They kiss some more until he pulls himself away, all that breathless make-out session glory still sticking close to him. Chan smiles back, glancing at the clock ticking nervously on the wall. “You should go home.”

“Yeah,” Woojin acknowledges. He tidies up his uniform and picks up his bag from the floor. His eyes are fixed on Chan’s lips that feels like it’s swollen. “See you later. Careful on your way up there.”

He ruffles Chan’s hair for the last time before he left the dorm building. With a shaking mind and flushed face, he walks up the stairs (the damned lift broke down for the nth time) and finds Felix is still awake, sprawled in the top bunk studying for his supposedly upcoming test. When the younger asks, Chan shakes it off.

So, that’s it. That’s the secret.

***

It’s lunchtime. Chan was eating his meal with his friends when Yugyeom came slamming his food tray against the table, his soup splattered everywhere and the whole table focuses on him. He groans, “Man, I’m getting annoyed as fuck.”

“Did Mr. Kim called you to the office for the Jihoon case?” Bambam asks. He snorts when Yugyeom nods as he begins to stuff his face with rice. “They aren’t really leaving you and him alone, huh.”

“Hasn’t that ended like, a long time ago?” Chan frowns. He plays with his chopsticks, tapping them against his tray and slaps Bambam’s pair who intend to steal some of his meat. He knows Yugyeom fought with one of the freshmen, Jihoon, but that already happened about one month ago. “What did he say?”

“Detention. It was supposed to be two weeks, but Jihoon kept tormenting him, so he was quite mad. Guess what happened. Bam, straight four weeks with that little shit.”

“At least you didn’t get expelled,” Chaeyoung chimes in. “The fight was bad, you know. It was a hot topic for a week straight. You became the school’s celebrity along with Jihoon.”

“Jihoon is a delinquent celebrity in the first place. However, I was not.”

Chan hears the voice of Yugyeom being defensive and his friends squabbling as per usual, but he doesn’t pay attention. In the way he hopes is natural, he flicks his eyes to the opposite direction of them where Woojin is sitting idly with his friends. One of them is sticking out more to his eyes, and Chan recognizes him as Jihoon.

He turns his head away and start laughing along with his friends, never really knowing why they laughed. Heaven knows what will happens if he got caught for staring too long. Their circle of friends never really meet, added by a fact it’s not a friendly term caused by the Jihoon and Yugyeom fight. Woojin seems to acknowledge this too, as he never attempts to start an interaction whenever they are at school.

“Yeah, now remind me our mock tests are coming and I still have to do detention.”

Jimin laughed, “Look who’s saying. Honestly, you don’t give a damn about them. Say that to dear Chan who goes to cram school every freaking day.”

Almost the whole table hollered. Chan is quite famous for being the most committed at studying in their group. Feeling wronged, he yells back; “Hey, you go to cram too! And you too. You are not even in the final year.” He pointedly looks over to Minho who was laughing as hard as Jimin.

Jimin raises her hand defensively; “At least I don’t go every day.”

Minho’s face turns sour. “If you got strict parents and high expectation, you just have to study all night long.”

“Now you know,” Chan replies back coolly. He purposefully ignores when the group booed him.

The bell rings just in time they are done eating. Some of them who are in the lower year, including Minho and Chaeyoung, went back to their own class quickly meanwhile Chan and the rest of the third years are still slacking around in the canteen. The teacher always comes late, they’ve got no reason to hurry.

On the way out, Chan finds Woojin who is also getting ready to go back with his fellow classmates. The other boy catches his stare almost immediately. He somehow manages to maintain eye contact for a few seconds, as if hesitating whether to greet or not. In the end, he throws a quick small grin before resuming to stack the food trays he has been holding.

Chan almost misses it. Apparently, his friends missed it too because neither of them seems to catch on. He didn’t get the chance to smile back, being dragged back to class leaving the canteen behind.

***

That evening when he steps into cram school, Woojin is already there. His hands are moving quick and neat, taking out everything he will be needing for today’s lesson. Chan took a seat beside him, the other shooting a greeting smile as he sat.

“Am I late?” Chan asks quietly, noticing the teacher is already in the class. Bambam was a jerk for running away and forcefully making him stay twenty minutes longer to do the class cleaning duty, although that day was not his turn.

Woojin shakes his head, scrunches his nose a little bit as a habit. “No, it was a lil’ close though.”

He doesn’t pry any longer, so they fell quiet in no time. Chan scrolls through his phone while waiting for the lessons to start, skimming over group chats and replying messages from his parents asking about his daily life. To be a student in a foreign country has its pros and cons, although he really got lucky roomed with a fellow Aussie that helped him to ease the yearning.

Now winter is here and it’s been cold and somber, Chan found himself missing the heated air of Australia even more. The final year exam is coming shortly after the winter is over, he hasn’t yet decided whether to stay or to go back to Australia for the university.

Woojin breaks his train of thought by a light nudge on his arm. Chan blinks and shut his phone off, watching how the other grins and cocks his head to the front signaling him to pay attention. Right. He grins back and turns his attention to the teacher.

“For today’s meeting I’ll explain the basics, but you’ll study the details through exercises after this. Please do the exercises on page 78 until 83 at home. Mark questions you couldn’t understand, then we’ll discuss it next meeting.”

The lesson begins as usual. The clock ticks heavily as it drags the night within. Chan rolled his shoulder a few times, tiredness starts to dawn on him. He glances at Woojin beside him who is scribbling notes, furrowing brows and focused gaze. He muffled a yawn, reaches for his pen and continues writing.

The teacher has done explaining some basic things, now they’re left on their own to study the rest of the materials. The class is silent, only filled with a few clicks and paper rustling. Chan flips over the pages of exercises that are yet to be done, additioned by homework that was given. He sighs but still does the rest of his exercises anyway.

After a while, Woojin settles his pen on the table and slumps over the table. Woojin’s notes are messier than Chan’s, but he’s always on the quicker side when they are doing the exercises. After done, he always folds his arms and buries his face to them, just like now. God knows what he’s thinking.

“Hey,” Woojin turns his head to Chan while laying his head still. “Do you think you can cram the homework by pulling an all-nighter? We got mock tests coming in two days and the homework is like, five pages many.”

“Kids like us should know better final years don’t sleep,” Chan remarks with no bite in his tone. When Woojin chuckles, he continues; “No, seriously. I was just thinking about that too. Maybe I should just skip sleeping and get it on through until we graduate.”

“You’ll die before graduating.” They snort silently.

A beat of silence passes over them. Chan definitely doesn’t know what’s going on in his mind that time, but if he knows, he refuses to acknowledge. He asks with a hopeful tone he hopes Woojin doesn’t hear, “Do you want to do homework together at the weekend?”

What he doesn’t expect to hear is Woojin saying, “Sure, where?”

“Uh,” He stumbles with his word. He remembers the library is open even at weekends, but somewhere of his mind says something else. Felix said he’s going out at the weekend anyway. “Do you mind going to my dorm?”

“Of course not!” Woojin beams. “So, the weekend at your dorm?”

“Yeah.”

The class is finally dismissed. Somehow, Woojin manages to hold Chan’s hand for a second as an effort to hold him back after he bids his goodbye saying he’ll go first. “I’ll walk you back,” he blurts. “Can I?”

“It’s really late though,” Chan says, glancing over the clock. The lesson really finished late today. “Don’t pull that ‘I go to the same direction’ excuse because I know you don’t. The last bus is about to run. You don’t want to miss that bus or else.”

“Oh,” Woojin sounds really disappointed Chan almost feels bad. He lets Chan’s hand slip out of his own, it left a tickling sensation on his palm. “Okay then. Be careful on your way.”

Smiling, Chan nods. “Be careful too. I’ll see you later.”

He passes the dark hallways of his dorm quickly, even making sure Felix is really planning to go out at the weekend. Just in case.

***

Woojin looks amazed the moment he steps in into Chan’s dorm room. “This is some good stuff. I didn’t know our school’s dorm looks as good as this. They aren’t really joking when they said they put their fullest to our dormitory building!”

“Woojin, this is our last year in high school, and three years aren’t short,” Chan said with an amused tone, astonished at his finest. He closes the door behind him and sits on his studying chair. “How could you never have seen the rooms before?”

“I dunno,” He shrugged sheepishly, taking a seat beside Chan. “Never really got into the rooms, I guess. None of my friends live in the dorm, so.”

At his reply, Chan wants to make some playful remarks about Woojin’s friends, but figures out it’s not a brilliant idea. He shrugs it off, taking out his pencil case and books from the table shelf. Woojin mirrors him as he zips open his bag and takes out his book too.

They are hunched together in Chan’s studying table, feet and arms bumping every once in a while. Sometimes Woojin asks him questions he couldn’t understand, leaning close to his space until Chan could smell his scent. Not that he minds though.

“Your room really screams Australia,” Woojin comments a moment after they’ve been doing their homework. Chan stops on his tracks and looks around his room. A medium-sized Australian flag is hung on the wall. Kangaroo and koala plushies are littered on the bed, Felix had bought them along with postcards that are displayed proudly. In their own studying tables, numbers of photo frames of their families could be seen.

Chan’s expression softens into a smile, continuing to write. “Yeah, I guess. My roommate is an Aussie too. We cope with our homesickness this way.” He hears Woojin hums in understanding.

“Are they your younger siblings?” He points to one of the photo frames where Chan was posing with Hannah and Lucas, taken last summer in their backyard. It was a short vacation, but they made sure they had fun with a barbecue party and camping nights. “They’re cute.”

“They got the good genes in them,” Chan jokes lightly.

Woojin laughs at that. He clears his throat, voice low but firm reaching the other’s ears. “I guess it’s confirmed you are related, you got them too.”

Chan chokes on his breath, not expecting that. He turns at Woojin prepared to see the playful smirk, but all he got is a sincere smile. Woojin made no effort to hide he’s staring. His eyes are going down, down, focusing on what Chan knows as his lips. He inaudibly gulps. Chan knows the loop is going over again, he’s gonna be screwed over long nights thinking about greedy hands and hot breaths against his face. They never really talked much, that’s the problem.

His brain is telling him this and that, but his body is melting into Woojin’s as the latter leans in close. Woojin looks at him asking approvement silently. And what the fuck is Chan supposed to do, anyway? He nods.

They’ve always rushed before, chasing races with the time. In the end, when it’s nearing midnight they have to part ways. It’s always Woojin leaving after a soft mumble of goodbyes or a ruffle on his hair, soft caresses on his cheek. It’s always Chan with flushed skin and jumbled mind, climbing up the dormitory stairs.

Today, none of them give a fuck about time. Woojin closes the gap as his hands find Chan’s, holding him tight. He retreats for a second, only to going in again. Chan closes his eyes as Woojin presses against him more firmly, lips soft and plush against his. His heart is going crazy inside.

Woojin strokes Chan’s palm with his thumb and tilts his head to deepen the kiss. Chan nips on his upper lips, his other hand cups Woojin’s neck. Suddenly aftershave smells so good, even though Chan never really been fond of them before.

He shifts uncomfortably, their bodies have been twisting in very awkward angles. His back is stiff and sore, but Chan can’t think anything straight when there’s Woojin eating his lips. So he rasps; “Bed.”  
It’s almost funny Woojin’s eyes widen comically and Chan can feel his face going redder. “I mean sit on the bed. It’s uncomfortable.”

They shuffle awkwardly and settle on the lower bunk. Chan is leaning against the wall and Woojin sits in front of him, legs colliding with each other. The latter caresses his cheeks, smiling fondly. “You should see your face right now.” He pecks Chan’s cheek.

Chan sighs blissfully. He drapes his arm all over Woojin, letting him trail his neck with peppering kisses and groans whenever Woojin playfully bites his ear. The Aussie buries his face in the other’s shoulder, inhaling a good amount of Woojin’s body scent. His hand trails down Woojin’s spine, wandering around the hem of his shirt.

“Chan!”

They both froze. Someone just banged the door. The banging continues; “Bang Chan! You alive inside?!”

Chan pulled away out of Woojin’s arms. His heart fell to his stomach, he can’t mistakenly hear that voice. Bambam and Yugyeom. They are about to break into his room, whereas he just made out with one of their arch nemesis’s friend.

Well, shit.

They sit still facing each other. It’s either Chan’s expression made it painfully obvious or he can read through the air because Woojin asks quietly; “Should I pretend that I am invisible?”

“No, we should,” He says through gritted teeth. “Let’s just hope they will not actually break in.”

Woojin stays still at that. Chan must be deadly pale because Woojin keeps checking on him by holding his hand and squeezing it once in a while. Meanwhile, the chatter outside the room continues.

After a few minutes being frozen in place and ignoring number of cramps, the noises outside died down followed by distant footsteps. Chan exhaled a relieved breath, rubs his face with his palm. It feels like his life had been reduced five years short. Though, it was real close.

“We should go back studying,” Woojin suggests. His eyes flicker to Chan once and he clears his throat, ears deep red. “But let’s tidy ourselves first.” He corrects.

Chan agrees. But before they could do anything, the door rattles and clicks open. Felix appeared on the doorstep, looking thunderstruck and speechless looking at them on the bed. They all froze once again. Chan breaks the silence by saying, “Right,” he punches himself mentally when he stutters. “We should go.”

Woojin nods as he gets off from the bed hastily. He shoves all of his belongings inside of his bag, then they walk out of his dorm together. Chan can’t say anything longer than one word to his roommate before he scurries off following Woojin out from his room. He promised himself to explain to Felix as soon as he can, though.

Chan catches Woojin’s sleeve before he walks out from the dorm building, “I’m sorry for the interruption. Should’ve made sure no one is coming today.”

“No, it’s okay,” Woojin chuckles, waving him off. “We have done all the hard tasks. Wouldn’t be a problem to do the rest on our own.”

That’s not what I meant, Chan says, but he keeps it inside of his mind. He nods tightly and hopes his smile looks sincere while bidding Woojin goodbye.

***

“Where did you go, anyway?”

Bambam flicks the eraser dust off the table, scribbling random doodles on Yugyeom’s book. When the owner protests and snatches it off him, he turns to Chan’s. The said boy just sighs, letting Bambam to do whatever he wants with his notebook. They’re getting messier each time with formulas he has to memorize, anyway.

“I went to sleep,” He cringes mentally when the lie smoothly comes out from his mouth. “I woke up then, but figured I didn’t want to see you. I got my priority fixed on, you know.”

“He’s getting meaner every time we talk to him.” Yugyeom whines. He throws his gigantic body on Chan and fake weeps. Chan grunts from the sudden force, tried to wiggle out but Yugyeom’s a damn heavy boy. “You know, I kinda miss our first year. You were in a soft innocent puppy phase back then! Now you just slap me whenever I tried to pet you.”

Bambam sniggers at the corner, “I bet he misses your pre-thug phase too.”

They are cut off by a sudden ruckus outside the class. Come an agitated-looking Jihoon being dragged away by Park Woojin. Woojin looks determined and not sparing behind him a glance while Jihoon struggles to flee, protests and curses coming out constantly from his mouth. It all happened so quickly, the whole class becomes eerily silent to process the whole thing. It takes a quite while for each student to get back to their own business.

“What are they doing here?” Chan mutters. The third-year classes are located on the highest floor, not to mention they are coming from the hallway that leads to the school rooftop. It’s prohibited for students to enter.

Bambam looks at him strangely. “Minho told us in the canteen, didn’t he?”

“Nope, doesn’t ring any bell.”

“He talked with Changbin. The entire first-year know Park Woojin is crazily tailing Jihoon now. Some say he’s being a teacher’s puppet, some say it’s purely his willing. Changbin said they have something going on between them, though.”

“Something like they’re smooching each other’s faces,” Yugyeom adds, probably noticing Chan’s puzzled expression. He scrunches his face, snorts. “These disgusting jerks. If they are going to shoot soap opera, at least do it outside the school.”

Chan hums. The topic never lasts long, as they steer into a different subject to talk about. When the bell rings, Yugyeom and Bambam groan as they reluctantly get back to their respective seats. Chan sighs when he sees his notebook is messier thanks to Bambam. He flips to another new page anyway, getting ready to fry his brain.

 ***

He goes home at ten that day. Felix is still awake, of course, he’s a third year too. He will be graduating junior high at the same time Chan will graduate. Felix looks up from his phone when Chan opens the door. He raises his hand, smiling. “What’s up, hyung? You’re earlier than usual.”

“Cram’s dismissed today,” He throws his bag anywhere and jumps straight to the bed. He plants his face flat to the mattress, sighing heavily. He turns his head to the side only to find Felix looking at him concernedly.

“Are you okay, hyung?” He asks. “You should go to sleep early if you are tired.”

Chan shakes his head, pushing his body against the bed so he sits upright. “No, it’s okay. I have something to tell you about anyway.”

At Felix’s expectant gaze, he made sure he takes a deep breath before speaking. “I’m sorry about two days ago.” He apologizes, watching Felix’s eyes widen and starts flapping his hands in panicky gestures.  
“No—of course it’s okay, hyung. It’s your room too. I said I would come back at eight and came back much earlier. I understand perfectly if you want to spend time with your boyfriend.“

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Chan says, the words bitter in his mouth.

Felix turns red so fast it’s almost like he’s being burned. “Oh... I just assumed...” He gestures wildly to bed and ends up being embarrassed by himself. “I’m sorry. You look disheveled and I, I just assumed you were. Er.”

“We were kissing.” The older states, matter-of-factly tone.

The poor younger boy reddens more Chan didn’t think it was possible. Felix looks like he’s lost for words. He clenches his lips tight, averting his gaze to everywhere but Chan’s direction. “Uh. Okay.” He croaks weakly.

Chan leans his body against the wall for support. He sighs. Plenty of times he had imagined, but never even once passed in his mind he would come out for the first time to his roommate. “The point is it’s not a thing. I wanted to tell you. I’m sorry if I made things awkward.”

“Do you like him, hyung?”

“I don’t know,” Chan answers truthfully. “Our circle of friends doesn’t really interact, so we don’t talk in school. My friends don’t seem like they’re okay with this kind of... things.”

Felix lets out a soft ‘oh’. He leans forward and reaches out to Chan’s hand, holding him gently. “I’m sorry, hyung. Thank you for telling me. I appreciate that.”

In fear of letting out tremors in his voice, Chan doesn’t say any longer. He only squeezes back gratefully and tells Felix to go back studying. Chan stays up with him until it’s late, forcing himself to focus on whatever’s written on his notebook. The last thing he wants is to be lost in his thoughts. He’s not letting sleep to do that for him.

***

Chan yawns tiredly as he puts his jacket on and steps out of his room. It’s eight in the morning, the sun is barely up. The dorm building slowly came to life, students trickling here and there. The week’s been long, it’s finally weekend again. He shivers a little the moment he left the building, huffing white steams from his mouth.

He strides to the nearby cafe and orders a hot latte. Chan doesn’t necessarily like drinking bitter coffees. If anything, he’d prefer lattes and chocolates to help soothe his mind. He mutters thanks after taking the exchange money, sliding aside for the person after him. He fiddles with his phone while waiting for his order.

“Could I have four medium americanos for take away? That’s all, thank you.”

Chan snaps his head up from his phone. It’s Woojin’s voice. The boy is wearing casual clothes wrapped with a thick padded jacket. He turns to Chan and smiles. “Hey.” Chan greets him awkwardly. They didn’t talk much after the incident, only silence fills the most of the time they’re together. “What are you doing this early?”

“I’m on my way to the bookstore,” Woojin replies. He brings a guitar bag with him, so Chan figures out he’s probably will go to somewhere after the bookstore. The waiter calls for Chan’s order. He takes them gratefully. He’s about to excuse himself when Woojin offers, “Do you want to tag along?”

Chan hesitates for a while. The mock exam just ended, so this weekend he has plenty of time. There should be no problem if he ditched his studying plan today and came back a little later. “Do you mind if I come?”

“I should be the one asking,” Woojin laughs. He shrugs to his guitar bag on his back. “I’m going to entertain kiddos. If you are okay with it, then it’s set!”

The Aussie nods. Woojin accepts his americano and they start to walk out of the cafe together. “What kind of kids are we talking about? I mean the age range,”

“Four until six,” Comes Woojin’s reply. They meet an intersection, where Chan naturally steers his steps to the school direction. Woojin pulls his arm gently to the right direction while chuckling. “The bookstore is in the opposite direction, you dummy.”

He flushes. “I know, just.... instinct.”

The bookstore is five-minutes walk long. Woojin immediately goes to the children’s book section the moment they arrived, Chan hot on his tail. They both stand on the section awkwardly, surrounded by boys and girls much younger than them. “Could you choose one book for me? The one that children would like.” Woojin says to him.

“Why do you think I would know?” Chan asks, but his eyes are already scanning shelves of books.

“You have younger siblings. Two, at that.” Woojin scoffs. He turns to Chan. “You just gotta. Aren’t you already searching for it now?”

He laughs and picks up an ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ book. It was Hannah’s favorite. Woojin’s eyebrows shoot up at that, he looks quite pleased. “Interesting choice. We’ve been collecting the series, the kids seem interested by the story so far.”

Woojin chooses one book himself. They paid for the books and got out of there. The sun is slowly climbing high on the sky, it’s getting a little bit warmer than before, but still cold. They halted on a bus stop when Chan realizes that he doesn’t know where they are going to.

“Where are we going?”

“Took you long enough to ask.” Woojin tries to hide his smile by biting his cheeks but no avail. He ruffles Chan’s hair, “You know, if you let anybody bring you to anywhere you’ll get kidnapped soon enough if you are not careful. That’s dangerous.”

Chan whines and swats his hand. “You are not anybody. I just forgot to ask.”

“Okay, so I am somebody to you.” Woojin teases, but it does not last long. It’s funny that he gets flustered by himself with that statement. Chan got his revenge on him by laughing as much as he wants. Woojin shushes him and hops on the bus, his ears beet red.

***

Woojin told him they are going to a music class. What he didn’t tell him is it’s his older brother’s class, so Chan was much flabbergasted when a man who resembles Woojin welcomed them in front of the class. He sent Woojin a betrayed look, which the other brushes off by a grin and a “You didn’t ask.”

He can’t sulk for too long though. The children are excited at the sight of them, especially Woojin. It looks like he’s been there before. He places his guitar bag on the corner and greets each of them happily.

“You haven’t visited for too long!” One of the younger girls cries, clinging to his legs. “Let’s sing. I wanna hear you play guitar! I want to hear your stories too.”

The children cheer at that, although Woojin hasn’t replied yet. The boy laughs. “No, no, not yet. Let’s study first, okay?” He offers. When the children’s expressions deflated Woojin quickly adds, “We can read and sing as much as we want aftermath!”

One of the teachers takes over him. She starts the lesson with a cheerful voice, and soon the children are focused, Woojin long forgotten. Woojin’s older brother ushers them to one of the empty classes used for the teachers' briefing. They sit down there meanwhile the older brings them snacks.

“You never prepared one when it’s just me, hyung,” Woojin protests as he sets the americano on the table. He still takes a pastry heartedly though.

“It’s a new face, I’ll have to build a good image.” He sits down in front of them. He reaches out his hand. “My name’s Sojin. And who is this fellow?”

“Bang Chan,” Chan takes his hand, shaking them. “I’m in the same cram school as Woojin. We go to the same high school too.”

“Oh,” Sojin forms his lips into an ‘o’. He glances to his younger brother who seals his lips tight and refuses to look at him. “Right. Nice to meet you. If Woojin hasn’t told you, you are going to play with them after their lessons. You arrived a little bit early—on their break—so we’ll have to wait a little bit. I’ll leave you then,” He excuses himself and walks out from the classroom.

“Singing club in this school does its activities every Sunday,” Woojin explains once he sees Chan’s eyes darting around the classroom. “My brother is teaching them. I come to help. I try to come every weekend, but now I’m in final years, I can’t. I come every month.”

“You sing and play guitar?”

“Yeah,” He nods. “The children sometimes get bored by only singing, so I read to them once in a while. Last month they requested specifically for both, and I—I couldn’t refuse, you know. Then I met you, so I thought... why not have you to help me.”

“How did you know I can sing though?” Chan questions, taken aback.

Woojin looks as bewildered as him. “I didn’t know. Now I know, can you sing with me?” He stands up and starts to walk towards the classroom door. “Hold on, let me grab my guitar next door.”

Not too long after, he comes back with his guitar. Woojin snaps his finger, remembering something. “Right. You were from Australia. Are you familiar with Korean children songs?”

“We lived here until I was five,” Chan stares at the guitar, fingers reaching out to pick the strings randomly. It makes soft melodic noises, echoing around the room. “I can remember a few, but not much.”

“Okay,” The latter reaches a book filled with children’s songs. He picks out a few songs that Chan remembers vaguely and sings them in a low voice. Woojin sounds pleasant. His tunes compliment the guitar nicely. Chan was too mesmerized he forgot he’s supposed to join Woojin on the second verse.

Sojin steps in the classroom before they could start the song again. He tells them that the lesson is done and they can play with the kids now while waiting for the parents to pick them up.

“We’ll just sing unrehearsed then,” Woojin comments calmly. Chan glares at him, punching his side hard. He groans, clutching on his waist. “We’ll do well anyway!” He cries. “They are still brats, they won’t know if we made a mistake.”

“They are in the music club for some reason, for God’s sake!”

 

 

They sit in the center of the class, children surrounding them excitedly. “All right, weren’t the lessons boring?” Woojin asks, glances playfully to the teachers who stand aside in the corner. Some of them laugh, the other throw fake-punches at him. The children cheered in agreement. “The good news is, I brought a new friend today! He brought new books with him.”

Soon after, the children plaster over Chan. They ask for his name, praises his dimples, getting overly delighted when they see books coming out from his bag. Woojin stares fondly behind his guitar. Chan notices that, “Aren’t you going to sing?”

“Reading comes first,” He reasons. “If I sing the kids are gonna be distracted.”

He grumbles under his breath, but failed to hide his smile. In the end, the reading doesn’t even last for ten minutes, as the kids begin to demand they want to hear them sing together.

“We didn’t practice, guys,” Chan warns. He looks at Woojin who’s getting ready with his guitar. “Don’t laugh if we made a mistake. Just pretend it didn’t happen.”

They laughed together. Woojin starts to pick his guitar and the laughter quietens down. He stares at Chan’s eyes, giving him the cue to start singing.

They start off shakily, but slowly they get steady after reassuring each other with little nods. The children start to sing along with them, clapping to the beat. It’s cheerful and radiant, Chan never experiences something like this before. It’s a good choice he came with Woojin, and that’s the most important one. He feels happy with him.

***

Woojin’s phone rings after the class. He picks it up and brings it next to his ear. “What’s up.” He listens to the other line, then glances to Chan. “I went out. No, the class is already over.” He covers his phone and mouths to Chan, “My friends are nearby.”

If Woojin is inviting him, it’s not a good idea. Chan doesn’t know how to reply, so he purses his lips and looks down. He sees Woojin’s foot stepping away with his voice lowered down and curses himself in his mind. All the fun, all the laughs, he’s ruining all of this.

He takes out his phone and looks at it while doing nothing. Woojin approaches him and touches his shoulder gingerly. He smiles when Chan looks up to him, “Let’s go. We’ll take the subway, since my friends could be lurking anywhere by the bus.”

“I can go back alone, though,” Chan says, albeit a little bit reluctant.

“Going out with my friends is a thing,” Woojin takes his guitar bag and cocks his head to the school’s gate. “My time with you is another thing. Besides, I’ll be the prime suspect if you got kidnapped.”

“Out of all things, you seem to like this kidnap threatening thing,” Chan hisses to himself, but follows the other anyway.

The way back to the school is silent. Chan ponders whether to apologize or not, but he ends up not saying anything in fear of making things more messed up. The station is busy, knowing it’s almost lunchtime, they didn’t manage to get any seats. Woojin quietly takes Chan’s hand and leads them to the spacious area in order to not get squished between people.

It’s easy to not mind other people’s business when you are packed together like sardines in a can. None of them wants to let go, so neither of them does. The thickness of their padded jackets helps to conceal their linking hands. Unconsciously, Chan tightens his grip every time the floor rattles. Woojin squeezes back without looking.

To be honest, it fucks with Chan’s mind. They’ve been tiptoeing around each other, not really knowing what they’ve been messing up with. One day they would kiss and flirt and laugh about it, the other day they would pass each other as if they are strangers to each other. Although it frustrates him, if Woojin’s holding him this tight, he can’t find himself walking away. He’s afraid to fall, but he found himself already falling deep and deeper each time.

They pass the cafe they’ve visited earlier this morning. Chan halts, making the other boy turns at him questioningly.

“Let’s talk before we get back,” He offers with a small smile. “Shall we?”

**Author's Note:**

> i intended to make it a sweet 6k and not-so-accidentally doubled it instead, so i split it up in two parts. i'm sorry if there's any grammar errors. if you have anything to talk about please do so, i would be so glad. thanks for reading!


End file.
